


Telling Scary Stories in the Dark

by RedLlamas



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Halloween, M/M, Power Outage, Pre-Relationship, Puppy Love, Scary Stories, Sleepovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:29:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27312649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedLlamas/pseuds/RedLlamas
Summary: England invited Germany over to his house for a scary movie marathon, but then the power went out, so now what're they gonna do? Boo!
Relationships: England/Germany (Hetalia)
Kudos: 14





	Telling Scary Stories in the Dark

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TeethHoarder](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeethHoarder/gifts).



Arthur had invited Ludwig over to his house for a fun Halloween marathon, and who was Ludwig to say no? So off he went, dressed in comfortable clothes, intent on spending the entire day in bed with Arthur. His heart beat at the thought of Arthur getting comfortable enough with him that he could even lay his head on his shoulder.

When Arthur opens the door, he’s dressed in a cape and fake vampire teeth.

“Lud!” he proclaims. “Welcomffe to my houffe!!” He spreads his arms wide, making his cape fly and cascade over him. Ludwig giggles.

“Hey Arthur, I’m here for the spooky stuff,” he says as he comes in, toeing off his shoes at the door. Arthur leads the way to his room, making a quick detour at the kitchen to pick up two bowls full of popcorn and candy. Once they get to Arthur’s room, they make themselves comfortable against the stack of pillows, Arthur putting the bowls between them, and getting the remote control.

“Ready for all of the Schhcary Moviess?” Arthur asks him, a serious glint in his eye. He had taken the teeth off to eat their snacks, but still kept the funny tone.

“Yesh,” Ludwig replies in his same serious tone. Arthur cracks a smile at that, and hits play.

Once they get through the Scary Movies, and Tucker and Dale, and The Cabin in the Woods, they start on The Grand Portage Murderess, but their fun watching Reese Witherspoon slowly losing her sanity while she kills people in Minnesota is cut short when the TV suddenly goes dark. The fire alarm beeps, and the air conditioner stops, and they’re completely engulfed in darkness.

Ludwig gets slightly agitated. This is...uncomfortable. He doesn’t like how eternal it feels here.

“Oh crap,” he hears Arthur say, and then feels him lean over to his nightstand and rummage around in it for something. When he finally finds it, he clicks something, and there is suddenly a ring of light on the ceiling. Ludwig looks at Arthur, and sees him slightly illuminated by the flashlight. Arthur was looking at the ceiling, but turns to look at him with a triumphant smile.

“Tada!” he says, and Ludwig grins.

“So… what are we gonna do now, now that we can’t watch movies?” Ludwig ventures.

Arthur looks to the side, thinking it over. He taps the flashlight in his hand. Suddenly!

“Oh! We can tell–” here he gets up on his knees, and points the flashlight to his face in a pseudo-spooky manner, and waves his hand about “– _ scary stories! _ ”

“Oh?” Ludwig tries. He’s not. The best. At telling stories. One time he was trying to tell something exciting to Gilbert, and he was so hung up on what were the proper descriptors for it that he blustered his way through it for twenty minutes before Gilbert patted his shoulder and quietly walked away.

“Yeah! It’ll be fun, we can wait out the power outage like this,” Arthur says. He sets the flashlight down between them, and its light shines on Ludwig’s blanketed lap. Arthur takes off his cape and sets it on the nightstand, and pushes the blankets away from him.

“Uh, what about our phones? Are they still working?” Ludwig asks, reaching for his from where it was between them. He turns it on, but sees there’s no internet. He frowns.

“Yeah, no, the wifi’s linked to the lights and all that,” Arthur supplies.

“I see. So I guess that means that–”

“Scary stories time!” Arthur cheers, stretching his arms out, a wide toothy smile on his face. Ludwig’s anxieties are slightly assuaged. But only slightly.

“You go first, you have a rich history of oratory and… scary things,” he proffers, and Arthur grins at him.

“Alrighty!” Arthur says, taking the flashlight again, and shining it on his face. Ludwig shifts in his spot so that he’s looking at him. “So! Our story is about this hiker, who had gotten lost in the forest…

“It was getting dark, and he knew that he had to find shelter for the night, lest he be subject to the wills of nature. So he looked around, poking here and there for a cave, an overturned tree, something to hide under. But instead of any natural outcropping, he comes upon an abandoned cabin. It’s small, just a bedroom and kitchen, but it’s still sturdy and will keep the rain away.

“So he makes himself comfortable, makes himself something to eat, and finally gets ready for bed. He’s drifting between sleepiness and wakefulness, and when he’s finally starting to drift off, his eyes snap open at the sight of paintings all around him. He wonders how did he miss them the first time, since they’re all of people sneering and growling at him, looking down on him in disgust.

“He decides he must’ve been very tired to not have noticed them, and finally lets himself fall to sleep. He dreams of nothing, and when he wakes, he realizes that he’s awash with light.

“Those weren’t paintings… they were windows. Oooooo!” Arthur ends, waggling his fingers in front of his face, making the flashlight in his hand shake to add to the effect.

Ludwig had been very engrossed in the story, and when Arthur ooo-ed at him, he was startled out of his concentration, and he giggled nervously. Arthur smiled at him, and held out his flashlight to him. Ludwig takes a moment to realize what he means by that, and bashfully waves him away.

“Oh, no, you can go again!” he says.

“What! No! C’mon, Lud, tell me a story!” Arthur insists, pushing the flashlight into Ludwig’s chest. Ludwig fumbles with it until he finally gets it to shine on the ceiling. He clasps it in both hands, palms sweating, and he wipes them against his pants.

“Uh, okay, okay, so… once upon a time,” he begins, pointing the light into his face. He blinds himself for a moment, and holds it slightly away from his face. “Yeah, so, some time ago…”

Arthur raises his eyebrows. “Yeah?” he prompts.

Ludwig grimaces. “There was this girl. Woman. This lady, and she was always wearing this green ribbon, but not on her head, she wore it around her neck, like a choker.”

He pauses to gauge Arthur’s reaction, and sees that he’s still interested in hearing the story, so he continues, “And, her name was Jenny, so Jenny, she grows up, and she meets this guy, Albert, and they fall in love, but he asks her what’s up with her ribbon, because he’s never seen her without it, and she just tells him to wait, because she’ll explain it one day. And he accepts that, so they get on with their life.

“So he waits, and they even get married, and have a life together, and so, one night, when they’re laying in bed, she’s turned on her side, and the tie, the knot of the ribbon is right there in front of him, so, and he can’t hold himself back anymore, because, you know, how does someone go nearly their entire life evading a question, right? Especially when the thing you’re asking about is  _ right there _ and so obvious, and so, he musters up his confidence, and he tugs at the tie, and the ribbon comes undone, and then Jenny’s head falls off her shoulders, and onto the floor.”

He pauses, then remembers to add, “Boooo?”

Arthur quirks a smile. “That was great! Very spooky stuff, Lud.”

Ludwig frowns. “Wait, really?”

“Yeah, really! It was a very good story.”

“But did I say it well?” Ludwig rolls the flashlight between his hands.

“Yes! Ludwig, you’re a very good storyteller,” Arthur says, reaching over to put his hand on top of Ludwig’s. His heart melts at that, and he gives a shy smile.

“Thank you,” he says. Arthur squeezes his hands, and gently takes the flashlight from him.

They spend some time like this, Arthur weaving intricate stories about what hides in the darkness and what it could do to you, and Ludwig struggling to tell a coherent story that Arthur promises him makes sense and is easily understood. Ludwig loosens up as the night goes on, feeling more confident with every story he tells, and Arthur’s compliments aren’t hurting him either.

The power comes back on when Ludwig’s in the middle of his story, standing up on the bed, towering over Arthur as he gesticulates wildly how the creature moved about. He looks up at the light in surprise, and Arthur lets out a hearty, “Booo!”

Ludwig drops back onto the bed, and turns off the flashlight. “I guess we can continue with our movies, then?”

“Really? Cuz I was having a lot of fun telling stories!” Arthur says, beaming at him. His smile is infectious, and Ludwig smiles back at him.

“I think I’ve told enough stories for tonight. It doesn’t come as easily to me as it does to you,” he explains. Arthur pouts, but nods understandably.

As they sit back against their pillows, and pull back the blanket over them, Arthur asks, “How did the story end?”

“Hmm?”

“The story you were telling. How did it end?”

Ludwig thinks to the real ending. The creature was hunted down, and was lit on fire in the middle of the town. He always thought that that was sad, that the creature couldn’t be free.

“The creature was helped by someone who loved him, and they set him free, and they fled into the woods to live together, and that’s where it ends.”

Arthur smiles at him, snuggling into his side. “That’s the sweetest story you’ve told, Lud.”

Ludwig feels his cheeks blush, but puts an arm around Arthur. “Thank you.”


End file.
